In January 2022, Young withdrew his entire discography from the largest streaming service in the world in protest against Joe Rogan, whose highly popular podcast was exclusively available on Spotify. Joni Mitchell also followed Young’s lead, removing all of her music from the platform. Given that Young and Mitchell have been friends for a long time and that Rogan was accused of spreading false information about COVID-19 vaccines on the podcast, it seemed reasonable for Mitchell to support her friend, even at financial expense.
In addition to Young, a group of 270 scientists and medical professionals also accused Rogan of disseminating false information about COVID-19 vaccines on the podcast, according to the Guardian. They claimed that Rogan’s misinformation was a sociological problem of catastrophic proportions and that Spotify was to blame for allowing this activity to flourish on its platform.
Young referred to Spotify as “the place of life-threatening disinformation about Covid. Making money by selling falsehoods… Young or Rogan. Not both at once.”
A representative for Spotify, after formally removing Young’s song, stated that they regretted Neil’s choice to withdraw his music from the platform and want to see him return soon
In response to the accusations, Rogan posted a video on Instagram outlining his stance on the subject. In the video he said; “I make mistakes, but I work to fix them. I strive to rectify myself whenever I make a mistake because I want to communicate the truth.
“I’m not mad at Neil Young. I’m a huge Neil Young fan. I’ve always been a Neil Young fan. And definitely no hard feelings towards Joni Mitchell. I love her too. I love her music; Chuckie’s in Love is a great song. I don’t know what else I can do differently. Other than maybe try harder to get people with differing opinions right afterwards,” he added.
Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify, expressed regret over the issue. He stated, “We have an obligation to do more to provide balance and access to widely accepted information from the medical and scientific communities.”
By February 2024, Joe Rogan’s podcast was accessible on various podcasting platforms, having been exclusively available on Spotify for more than three years. In what is estimated to be a new multi-year contract for $250 million (£196 million), Rogan agreed to enable other channels, including Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and Amazon Music, to broadcast the program.
Reluctantly, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell uploaded their songs back to Spotify in March 2024. Young announced that he will be bringing his music back to Spotify since he can no longer maintain his opposition across all streaming services.
Of his comeback to Spotify, Young said: “I made my choice because the misleading podcast I was against is now featured on Apple and Amazon. I’ve returned to Spotify because I can’t just abandon Apple and Amazon as I did with Spotify, since it would leave my music fans with very limited streaming options.”
Although Mitchell made no major statement, word rapidly got out on the internet when her songs that had been previously inaccessible could now be played again.
Young had previously said that Spotify can’t have both Rogan and Young. As it turns out, Spotify can really have both.
Whatever the real motivation for Young’s boycott or protest with Spotify, the fact that Young and Michelle are back together serves as a reminder that artists’ opposition to digital companies is typically ineffective and that these companies have a way of obtaining what they want.
Spotify has the ability to launch music careers in ways that were unthinkable only a few decades ago. If a song appears on one of the most-listened-to playlists on the site, an artist’s streams might increase dramatically practically instantly.
As to Forbes, Spotify has a commanding 30.5% market share for music streaming, which is more than twice that of its closest rival, Apple Music, with a share of 13.7%. YouTube is pretty much unmatched.
“Unlocking the potential of human creativity by allowing a million creative artists to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it,” reads the company’s mission statement. The business has made significant progress towards that goal. 16 billion new artists are discovered by fans on Spotify each month, which means that 16 billion times a month, music lovers listen to an artist they have never heard of before.
As a result, any criticism of Spotify should take into consideration the impact it has had on certain artists and content creators. However, according to Euro News, the platform’s algorithm has essentially standardized music preferences around a select group of well-known singers, making it more difficult for up-and-coming artists to become well-known.
When recommending contents, Spotify’s AI-powered system looks at three primary factors: song attributes, previous listening behavior, and lyrical substance and language. According to tinuiti, users’ interactions with songs—such as whether they skipped or listened for longer than the first thirty seconds—as well as their presence in other playlists also have an impact on the songs.
All of these may appear unimportant to you as a listener, particularly if the algorithm is presenting you with information that matches your preferences. However, as an artist, it might be difficult to accept that your success or failure could be determined by an algorithm rather than personal taste.
Because of the algorithms used by sites like Spotify and YouTube, which in part determine views and streams and, consequently, payment, many authors have long been frustrated.
Let’s imagine you are a content producer or artist and you believe you have been treated unfairly by the algorithm. What will you do, walk away? Boycotting? Well, an increasing number of musicians and content producers are switching from Spotify and YouTube to sites like Substack and Patreon, where their income isn’t affected by the algorithm.
Since profits on platforms like Substack and Patreon are not based on views—rather, audience members pay creators directly, with the platforms taking a tiny cut—creators are able to truly “own their audience.”
However, only well-established performers with fans, like Young and Mitchell, can truly pull this off.
Thus, you really have no choice but to put in a lot of effort if you’re just getting started as a musician or content provider. As you work on your rhythm, work to convince the algorithm